Low Carbon Britain 2018 Developing a Smart, Resilient, Digital Society is a unique conference that will address Great Britain's current carbon reduction position and allow us to hear from those leading and driving the policies and proposals. One of the main focuses of the conference is to discuss how public sector along with towns, villages and cities can reduce their carbon emissions. The current situation will be highlighted and a discussion surrounding how this can be improved and delivered will play an imperative part within the conference.

"Partnerships” are vital in overcoming the challenges and in discovering new opportunities.

UK emissions were 42% below 1990 levels in 2016. The first carbon budget (2008-12) has been met and the UK is currently on track to outperform the second (2013-17) and third (2018-22) carbon budgets, but is not on track to meet the fourth, which covers the period 2023-27.

Meeting future carbon budgets and the UK’s 2050 target to reduce emissions by at least 80% of 1990 levels will require reducing domestic emissions by at least 3% per year. This will require existing progress to be supplemented by more challenging measures.

Under the Climate Change Act, the Government is required to publish a set of policies and proposals that will enable the legally-binding carbon budgets, on track to the 2050 target, to be met. The Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017, presents the Government's plans.

In this report the Committee on Climate Change set out an assessment of that Strategy.

The key conclusions are:

The Government has made a strong commitment to achieving the UK's climate targets

Gaps to meeting the fourth and fifth carbon budgets remain. These must be closed

Fourth carbon budget (2023 to 2027)

Fifth carbon budget (2028 to 2032)

Risks of under-delivery must be addressed and carbon budgets met on time

Ensuring timely delivery

This infographic highlights the key messages from the report.

Areas for action identified in the Clean Growth Strategy are broad-based and cover most sectors. However, gaps remain to meeting the carbon budgets and there are risks relating to existing policies and to the new proposals and intentions. The Government has set out key actions and milestones for developing the proposals in the Clean Growth Strategy. These will need to be delivered, and supplemented by further ambition

Buildings energy efficiency

The overarching trajectory set out for improving the efficiency of the existing building stock is promising. Details need to be set out on how this will be delivered, particularly for 'able-to-pay' homeowners for whom there are still no firm policies to drive the necessary actions.

Low-carbon heat in homes, businesses and industry.

The commitment to phase out the installation of high carbon fossil fuel heating in buildings off the gas grid is welcome. This should include heat pump deployment, which, together with installation in new-build properties, would develop heat pump markets and supply chains in order to prepare, if necessary, for potential widespread deployment in buildings connected to the gas grid from the 2030s. However, the Strategy provides little commitment to a low-carbon supply mix in heat networks and no commitment to biomethane post-2021, both of which the Committee has identified as 'low-regrets' options at this stage. There is also little commitment to support an increase in the use of bioenergy for industrial process heat.

Surface transport.

The Government has set out an ambition for 30-70% of car sales and up to 40% of van sales in 2030 to be ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs). It will be necessary to deliver towards the upper end of the range for cars, and greater ambition will be needed for vans. There is little concrete action on emissions from HGVs. More is also needed on shifting travel demand from passenger cars to lower-emission modes.

Power generation.

The Government has set out plans for the decarbonisation of UK reliance on new nuclear build and net imports across interconnectors, both of which have associated risks. More is needed to provide a route to market for low-carbon electricity generation, especially lower-cost options such as onshore wind and solar, and to contract for additional low-carbon generation should the Government’s expected contributions from new nuclear plants and overseas generators under-deliver.

Agriculture and land use.

A commitment to include climate change mitigation as part of a new system of future agricultural support is welcome. However, strong policies to deliver emissions reductions in agriculture need to be developed soon. The acceleration of tree-planting rates should occur earlier than the Strategy's proposed timeline of the 2020s, to ensure that around 70,000 hectares of afforestation is delivered in England by 2025.

Aviation.

The Government have committed to publish a new Aviation Strategy by the end of 2018. This will need to include a plan to limit UK aviation emissions to the level assumed when the fifth carbon budget was set (i.e. around 2005 levels by 2050, likely to imply around a 60% potential increase in demand), supported by strong international policies.

This short animation highlights the key messages from the report.

Britain’s cities are currently exploring ways to harness the power of data and technology to make their cities a better place to live, work and play. Cities and their citizens generate a huge amount of data, which can be used in smart ways to achieve big things. A city is nothing without its people, so where better to explore how we can fuse open data and technology to make a real difference to lives of citizens. “Smart cities are the future and we want to make sure our cities are equipped to deliver for their citizens of Britain. This means being smart about how we use data and technology to improve services, promote innovation and empower people and communities.”

London Environment Strategy

In May 2018 Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, published his London Environment Strategy. The Mayor is taking a range of actions to improve the environment now, setting London on the path to create a better future

The state of London’s environment affects everyone who lives in and visits the city – it helps Londoners to stay healthy, makes London a good place to work and keeps the city functioning from day to day.

Today London is facing a host of environmental challenges. Toxic air, noise pollution, the threat to our green spaces, and the adverse effects of climate change, all pose major risks to the health and wellbeing of Londoners.

We need to act now to tackle the most urgent environmental challenges facing our city as well as safeguard London’s environment over the longer term. We need to ensure that London is greener, cleaner and ready for the future.

This is the first strategy to bring together approaches to every aspect of London’s environment. It is divided into the following areas:

Air quality

Green infrastructure

Climate change mitigation and energy

Waste

Adapting to climate change

Ambient noise

Solar Action Plan for London:

The mayor’s Solar Action Plan reiterates a target of installing 2GW of solar PV in the Greater London area by 2050, with an interim target of 1GW by 2030. This cites an ambitious scenario of rooftop deployment which takes London from an installed capacity of 108MW at the end of 2017 to 550MW by 2025.

If London is to make the most of solar energy, there are some big challenges we need to overcome. London has fallen behind other areas of the UK and we urgently need to increase installation rates to catch up. Sudden changes to national policy have also had a real impact on the solar industry, and I want us to reverse some of the damage done in London by creating a steady demand for the technology.

In a densely populated city like London, there is limited space for large solar arrays. However - as we create much-needed housing and workplaces – we have a fantastic opportunity to install more solar panels on these new buildings, incorporating them into the design right from the start.

This is going to be achieved by:

Ensuring more solar power is generated across the Greater London Authority estate; using planning powers to drive solar in new developments; supporting community projects; bulk buying solar to bring the costs down; and delivering solar panels through energy efficiency delivery schemes under the Energy for Londoners programme.

By making cities smarter automatically lowers carbon emissions within cities, this conference will underline an array of solutions and throughout the day a number of excellent case studies will be showcased.

Low Carbon Britain 2018 - Developing a Smart, Resilient, Digital Society will be an opportunity for you to be part of this inspiring journey.